Second stoning death appeal postponed

Hearing in an appeal filed by two former lovers against a stoning death sentence for adultery imposed on them by an Islamic court in northern Nigeria was deferred on Wednesday until the end of June. Fatima Usman, 32, and Adamu Ibrahim, 35, were both given the sentence last year in Niger State, one of a dozen states in Nigeria's majority Muslim north that have adopted strict application of the Islamic or Shari'ah legal code. They both appealed against the sentence. Andulmumini Mohammed, the presiding judge at the Shari'ah appeals court in the state capital, Minna, said hearing had to be postponed because officials of the justice ministry involved in the case were not represented in court and the defence counsel had also applied for an adjournment. "In view of the fact that the representative of the ministry of justice was not in court...we consider it proper to accept the application," Mohammed said, adding a definite date convenient to all the parteis would be worked out later. The adjournment came a day after a similar appeal concerning 31-year-old mother, Amina Lawal, was pushed back to 27 August in Katsina State, after the judges failed to form a quorum. The two lovers suffered a dramatic twist of fate after Usman's father had gone to court to compel Ibrahim to provide support for a baby born out of their former relationship. The case then came to the attention of an Islamic court judge who decided adultery had been committed and sentenced the couple to death by stoning as prescribed under Shari'ah. The introduction of strict Shari'ah in Nigeria has increased tensions between the country's Muslim north and the Chrisitian-dominated south, leading to outbreaks of sectarian violence in which thousands of people have died. President Olusegun Obasanjo's government has condemned the application of Sharia'h punishments on the grounds they contravene Nigeria's constitution. But the government says it is constrained to intervene by the country's federal structure where the states have autonomy to enact laws.